Customer Review

This is a riveting story with all of the requisite suspense and intrigue of a brutal murder played out in this world and a world of dreams and the departed.

For me the centre-piece was the masterful portrayal of the relationship between Lucy and Tim: two complex and volatile (and sometimes violent) personalities united in a tragically unrequited journey in search of self and (or is it `through'?) another.

I was upset when the book ended, perhaps because I was overtaken by how seriously wrong things had gone: alas, there would be no more opportunities for saying 'sorry.'

But I should have known what was coming, with the wonderful imagery and insights that revealed the vulnerabilities of these troubled people, especially Lucy. For example, on her first visit to Warkworth prison to see Tim, Lucy contemplates the sign on the gate that instruct visitors to `stand clear.' Why `clear' she wonders, and how odd a word it seems to her when contrasted with her clarity of mind in making the journey to Warkworth! And a particularly haunting insight is offered when Lucy approaches Tim on the doorstep of their temporary residence when making her first conjugal prison visit (or `PFV').

The point is, I had actually come to feel like I was in the minds and yes, even the souls, of Tim and Lucy. I really believed that "Tim had no premeditated plan to con Lucy" and I'm convinced that Lucy had indeed seen "the eyes of an ancient friend and lover" in Tim at the very beginning of their Odyssey.

I really do believe that they desperately wanted things to work!

I rarely re-read novels but this is one that I will pick up again. I'm sure that there is a lot that I missed. But I'll wait for a while as I'm still recovering from the sleep deprivation from my first read: I just couldn't put this book down!